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There used to be
nearly a quarter of a million blue whales in the oceans,
but they were hunted almost to the point of extinction
before they were protected in the 1960s.
And when I wrote this song,
I understood that there was a possibility
that they will become extinct.
Now, these are not mindless creatures,
they are highly intelligent,
very sensitive animals.
Their brains are a lot bigger than ours!
The heart of a blue whale
is really about the size of a BMW car.
And they are unique
because they are the largest animal
that ever to have lived in the world.
This song is written from the point of view
of the last blue whale.
It is called "The Ocean of Tears".
I am calling,
can you hear me?
I am crying,
can you see me?
I am searching,
can you find me?
As I've searched now for ten years with no reply.
I remember
one grey Antarctic day,
I lost my mother
whilst fleeing from a killer ship
An explosion,
then hearing her last agony
As she disappeared
in a spreading sea of red.
I am calling,
can you hear me?
I am crying,
can you see me?
I am searching,
can you find me?
As I've searched now for ten years
with no reply.
I have swum beneath the ice
and roamed across the sea,
I have sung far reaching songs
you could not hear,
But in case I'm not the only one
who's left alive,
I have to go on searching
till I die.
Perhaps I'm not the last,
I may never know
if another whale sings a song like mine.
One who's far away...
far too far away.
I did not believe in demons
till today.
Oh, take me far away,
to where my friends are now,
In the ice-blue sea,
where the sea lions play
I recall those days,
there were others then.
We were few,
but I was not alone.
Will I ever see one of my own kind again?
If I never see one of my own kind again,
When I'm gone from this world,
we will all be gone,
And you can dance
on the ocean
of our tears.
[The numbers of blue whales were so badly depleted through hunting
that although they are now protected,
they are too sparsely scattered to meet and breed
often enough to maintain their population.
Furthermore, modern shipping sonar,
both merchant and naval,
interferes with the sonar communication of the whales
making it even more difficult for them to locate one another
in the vast loneliness of the ocean.